Fiscal Policy, Monopolistic Competition, and Finite Lives

CESifo Working Paper Series No. 1661

CentER Discussion Paper Series No. 2005-126

47 Pages Posted: 17 Jan 2006

See all articles by Ben J. Heijdra

Ben J. Heijdra

University of Groningen - Department of Economics; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Jenny E. Ligthart

Tilburg University - CentER, Department of Economics; University of Groningen - Faculty of Economics and Business; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Date Written: February 2006

Abstract

The paper studies the short-run, transitional, and long-run output effects of permanent and temporary shocks in public consumption under various financing methods. To this end, a dynamic macroeconomic model for a closed economy is developed, which features a perfectly competitive final goods sector and a monopolistically competitive intermediate goods sector. Finitely lived households consume final goods, supply labor, and save part of their income. Amongst the findings for a permanent rise in public consumption are: (i) monopolistic competition increases the absolute value of the balanced-budget output multiplier; (ii) positive long-run output multipliers are obtained only if the generational turnover effect is dominated by the intertemporal labor supply effect; (iii) short-run output multipliers under lump-sum tax financing are smaller than long-run output multipliers if labor supply is elastic; and (iv) bond financing reduces the size of long-run output multipliers as compared to lump-sum tax financing and may give rise to non-monotonic adjustment paths if labor supply is sufficiently elastic and the speed of adjustment of lump-sum taxes is not too high. Temporary bond-financed fiscal shocks are shown to yield: (i) permanent effects on output; and (ii) negative long-run output multipliers.

Keywords: fiscal policy, output multipliers, Yaari-Blanchard model, overlapping generations, monopolistic competition, love of variety, temporary fiscal shocks

JEL Classification: E12, E63, L16

Suggested Citation

Heijdra, Ben J. and Ligthart, Jenny E., Fiscal Policy, Monopolistic Competition, and Finite Lives (February 2006). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 1661, CentER Discussion Paper Series No. 2005-126, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=875606 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.875606

Ben J. Heijdra (Contact Author)

University of Groningen - Department of Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 800
9700 AV Groningen
Netherlands
+31 50 363 7303 (Phone)
+31 50 363 7337 (Fax)

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

Jenny E. Ligthart

Tilburg University - CentER, Department of Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 90153
Tilburg, 5000 LE
Netherlands
+31 13 466 8755 (Phone)
+31 13 466 4032 (Fax)

University of Groningen - Faculty of Economics and Business ( email )

Postbus 72
9700 AB Groningen
Netherlands

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

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